


Ten Foot Show

by Siderea



Series: Green Grow the Rushes [3]
Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Alternate Universe - BtVS Fusion, Alternate Universe - Dark Angel Fusion, Alternate Universe - Firefly Fusion, Alternate Universe - Leverage Fusion, Alternate Universe - NCIS Fusion, Alternate Universe - Once Upon a Time Fusion, Alternate Universe - Sense8 (TV) Fusion, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Fusion, Alternate Universe - Teen Wolf Fusion, Alternate Universe: Stargate Atlantis Fusion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-02
Updated: 2016-06-10
Packaged: 2018-06-05 23:35:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 5,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6727876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siderea/pseuds/Siderea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten TV show AUs featuring the characters of Deep Space Nine. No knowledge of the shows should be necessary, although familiarity might deepen your appreciation and knowledge of the DS9 characters is encouraged. Each chapter will have its own summary and tags will update with each chapter.</p><p>Fifth: Firefly<br/>Sixth: Stargate: Atlantis<br/>Seventh: Sens8<br/>Eighth: Teen Wolf (TV)<br/>Ninth: Dark Angel<br/>Tenth: Leverage</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. BtVS: Ezri, Vampire Slayer

**Author's Note:**

> Part three in my DS9 AU series. For those just reading this story, each work in this series will have a different theme for the AUs involved and might stretch the definition of 'alternate universe'. The idea originated, insofar as I know, in the Teen Wolf fandom, although I have changed a lot of it, as well as going beyond the nine or ten steps that were floating around three or more years ago.
> 
> This one focuses on TV show fusions and will eventually contain ten chapters. The title is a play on "ten foot pole".

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ezri Tigan hates her new life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fusion with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Ezri limped up the stairs of her house and turned into the bathroom.  She stared at her face in the mirror.  Blood smears on her forehead and cheeks, bags under her blue-gray eyes, wisps of hair dried to her skin by sweat and blood.

 

“I hate this,” she whispered.

 

She turned the taps, waited for the water to warm up, and then splashed it on her face, slowly washing the blood away.  It was a good thing the rest of her family was out of town for the week.  She wouldn’t know how to even begin to explain this to them.

 

When the blood was gone from her face and hands, she padded down the hall to her bedroom.  Without bothering to flick on the light, she tucked her remaining stakes back into the chest at the foot of her bed before locking the padlock.  She tucked the necklace with the key and a cross back under her shirt before heading to the window.  A quick check of the lock and then she strode back over to her bed.

 

All she wanted to do at this point was flop down on it, but she knew she’d regret it if she plopped down in her bloody clothes.  With an aggrieved sigh, Ezri stripped, dropping the ruined outfit on the wooden floor, away from the rugs she had once enjoyed weaving.  Back when she’d still had a life outside of vampires and other monsters.

 

She would never forgive Jadzia for dying and leaving her the Vampire Slayer.  Never.


	2. Once Upon a Time: Job Offer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben Sisko needs a job to stay in Storybrooke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fusion with the ABC show Once Upon a Time.
> 
> This is so late, sorry, but it's not been a good month. Hopefully next week will return to a more normal MWF posting schedule.

Benjamin Sisko couldn’t quite believe he was still in the small town of Storybrooke.  He had intended to leave three days ago, convinced that he was doing the right thing, leaving Jake – _his son?!_ – with a man who could clearly take better care of him than a struggling private investigator.

 

But there was definitely something strange going on in Storybrooke.  From his own inability to leave – one car accident was one too many – to the way certain people definitely resembled characters in Jake’s book of fairy tales.  And those fairy tales!  They were so different from the ones Benjamin had read about when he was a child.

 

“Hot chocolate with cinnamon for our town’s handsome new resident?”

 

Ben looked up and smiled at Jadzia Dax, who seemed to be the only waitress ever working at Curzon’s Diner.  “Thank you, Jadzia.”  He accepted the mug, took a sip, and turned back to the newspaper opened in front of him.  _The Storybrooke Mirror._   An odd title for a newspaper, but it did fit the other oddities at work in this town.

 

“Anyone who doubted you and Jake being related would just have to take a look at the way you take your hot chocolate,” Jadzia said from behind the counter.  Ben looked back up, startled.  He’d thought she’d walked away.  “Relax, Ben.  I’m not trying to get up your ass the way Mayor Dukat is.  I’m just saying, it’s clear that you’re his biological father.”  She looked down at the newspaper page he had open and added, sympathetically, “Job hunting?”

 

“Trying,” Ben groaned.  He reached up, rubbed at his temples.  “How can your town have so few job offerings?”

 

 

Jadzia shrugged.  “We’re a small town, sure, but we tend to be pretty self-sufficient despite all that.  You know, I’m not sure that anyone’s ever actually even left Storybrooke.”

 

Yet another strange thing about this town he’d found himself trapped in.  Thankfully, the bell over the door rang out, distracting Jadzia and keeping him from having to come up with something to cover the awkward pause.

 

“Mr. Garak,” Jadzia said with that strange mixture of deference and dislike that seemed to follow the local tailor around.

 

“Ms. Dax and Mr. Sisko,” Garak said, affably enough.  “Lovely day we’re having, is it not?”

 

“The weather seems to be holding, yes,” Jadzia agreed.  “Is there something I can get you?”

 

“Actually, I’m here to speak to Mr. Sisko.  If you have the time, that is?”  His bright blue gaze speared Ben straight to the heart but he managed to nod and gestured to the stool next to him.  The tailor strolled over, sat down, and then leaned in.  “I understand you were a bail bondsman before coming to Storybrooke?”

 

“I still consider myself one,” Ben said a bit sharply.

 

“Excellent, excellent.  You see, I find myself in need of someone good at finding people.  People who don’t want to be found or whom other people don’t wish found,” Garak explained, leaning in closer, blue eyes glittering.

 

Despite himself, Ben leaned in himself, curious.  If nothing else, he was curious to see what this man – whom Jake insisted was actually Rumplestiltskin – had to say.


	3. NCIS: The Usual Suspects

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Special Agent Ben Sisko likes the people he works with. Just not when they ruin Admiral Martok's celebration.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fusion with NCIS.
> 
> Yes, it's two days late. No, I don't know if there will be a Friday update. This is just turning into one of those months.

Ben Sisko winced as he offered Admiral Martok a roll of paper towels.  “My apologies, Admiral.”

 

“Nonsense, Sisko,” the big man laughed.  “Who am I to argue with success?”

 

“Success, Admiral Martok?” Ben asked, eyebrows rising in disbelief.  “I would call tonight a complete catastrophe, in point of fact.”

 

“You might, Sisko, you just might, but look at the track record of your team,” Martok pointed out.  “No other NCIS team has closed as many cases as yours, and I’m sure tonight will prove to simply be another minor setback.”  He clapped Ben on the shoulder and Ben tried not to wince from the force.  “You mark my words, Sisko, tonight’s entertainment will quickly be forgotten under the weight of more success.”

 

“I hope you’re right, sir,” Ben said.  The admiral waved him off and strode out into the night.  Ben took a deep breath and then turned to face the main instigators in tonight’s clusterfuck.  “I hope you two are proud of yourselves,” he growled.

 

Julian ducked his head a bit sheepishly but Jadzia stared back at him, smiling enigmatically.

 

“You’re both very lucky that Admiral Martok has a sense of humor and that he doesn’t know it was you two at the bottom of this instead of my actual agents,” Ben told NCIS Bajor’s chief medical examiner and forensics specialist.

 

“To be completely fair,” Jadzia said, smiling that Cheshire grin of hers, “it’s not as if Nerys, Worf, and Elim were _completely_ uninvolved.”

 

“I’m aware that they weren’t innocent bystanders just as I’m equally aware that you two were the ones who started it,” Ben snarled.  He walked between the pair, back to the door into the ruined ballroom and shook his head.  Any other admiral would have raked them all across the coals for ruining an award ceremony.  Luckily Martok enjoyed a good bit of chaos.  Luckily he and Worf were friends.  Luckily he appreciated what Ben and his people did.  Luck, luck, luck, luck, luck.

 

He shook his head again.  Luck was nothing to depend on.

 

“Ben,” Jadzia said, putting a hand on his shoulder.  “It’ll be fine.  People will talk for a while, but most of them won’t know how this really happened.”

 

“I know,” Ben said, “but the two of you are on probation as far as I’m concerned.”

 

“You’re not the director _or_ the deputy director,” Julian pointed out.

 

“No, I’m not, but I _am_ the boss of my team,” Ben said, turning to grin at the pair.  To his pleasure, both of them were starting to look more than a little worried.  “No more visits from my team to either of your work places.  You two don’t come up to visit us, either.  And if I find out you two are texting or calling them during work hours – and work hours include whenever we’re on a case – you’ll regret it.  All communication comes through me.”

 

“But –” Julian began only to cut himself off, subsiding into a sulking silence, clearly recognizing that protests would lengthen the ‘probation’.

 

“That’s mean, Ben,” Jadzia accused.  “You know we’re all good friends.”

 

“Such good friends that you led them into helping you with this… I hesitate to call it something so mundane as a prank but I suppose disaster is a bit much.”  Ben rubbed his head, shook it once more.  “Just… just go.  Before I realize I have another way to punish you two fools.”

 

He didn’t wait for their response, just walked back into the ballroom and his trio of agents.  He smiled at them.  All three flinched.  “You three get to clean this shit up since you had so much fun assisting its creation.  Then we’ll talk about the other restrictions you’re on.”

 

“Yes, sir,” the trio mumbled.

 

Next time teams got reshuffled, he was going to request a transfer back to New Orleans.


	4. Supernatural: Appointment at Quark's

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunter Kira Nerys has an appointment at Quark's Bar. She just hopes she comes out of it alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fusion with the TV show Supernatural.
> 
> Sorry it's late, but this is probably going to be a pattern for the rest of the month, if not longer. Such is life.

Kira Nerys always took the same corner seat at Quark’s.  It kept anyone from sneaking up on her, gave her a decent view of the room, and offered a direct line-of-sight to the only door in and out of the bar.  She nodded politely enough to Leeta when the other woman placed a drink down at her elbow but didn’t reach for it yet.

 

The main door swung open, letting in a couple of locals.  Not hunters – they didn’t have that haunted look, didn’t compulsively check the room, didn’t nod to or otherwise acknowledge the hunters bunched here and there throughout the bar.  Nerys pickd up her scotch, took a healthy swig, set the tumbler back down soundlessly.  She hated waiting.

 

A sudden eruption of noise drew her attention to the gaming tables – someone had just won big.  She turned away, uninterested.  Quark would just fleece the poor fool, get back all the house had just lost and more.  Unless the man was smart enough to get out now.  But she’d learned over the years that once someone won big, they tended to think they were invincible.  It wasn’t a mistake she planned to make.

 

Nerys picked her glass up as the door opened again.  She straightened, set the scotch back down without drinking any.  She folded her arms on the table but didn’t wave the man over.  He made a beeline straight for her anyways, flashing a charming smile here and there as he made his way through the late night crowd.

 

She didn’t make any room for him or otherwise indicate that he was welcome, but the man she knew as Julian settled himself across from her with no indication that he felt any unease at putting his back to the entire room.  “Hello, Nerys.  Pleasant evening, isn’t it?”

 

Nerys didn’t bother to reply.  She simply glared at the creature sitting across the table from her, silently willing him to give her the information she’d come for.  He raised his eyebrows at her, and she growled.  With forced politeness, she asked, “You have information on Odo’s whereabouts?”

 

“So I do,” Julian grinned.  “For a price, of course.”

 

“Of course,” Nerys muttered, and Julian chuckled.  “What do you want?”

 

Julian winced.  “You hunters are always so blunt.  Always straight to the point.  ‘Give me what I want or else’.  Except that ‘or else’ doesn’t work on me.”  He settled back in his chair as Leeta arrived at their table.

 

“Welcome back, Julian,” Leeta smiled, setting some sort of cocktail down next to him.

 

“Thanks, Leeta darling,” Julian said, flashing her a grin that made him appear harmless, almost boyish, really.  “My best to your husband.”

 

Leeta giggled and squeezed Julian’s shoulder.  “Of course, Julian.  You still good, Kira?”  At Nerys’s nod, Leeta slipped away, back towards other customers.  “Give me a holler if you two need anything,” she called over her shoulder.

 

Once she was gone, Julian took a sip of his cocktail, set it back down, and leaned in.  “You have some information I’ve been looking for, Nerys, and if you give it to me – along with that knife you picked up back in Cardassia – I’m perfectly willing to point you directly at your ‘biffle’.”

 

Nerys forced herself to stop grinding her teeth together as she stared across the table at the infuriating creature, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it.  “Agreed,” she snapped.  Julian just kept staring at her, clearly expecting her to go first.  “The blade’s in my car.  As for the information, I can’t give it to you if I don’t know what you want.”

 

“Of course,” Julian agreed pleasantly.  He leaned in still closer, and his eyes were chips of ice despite the warmth of his smile.  “I want everything you know about Elim Garak.”


	5. Firefly: Defiant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to the crew of the Defiant, Julian is recovering from the experiments that shattered his psyche. That doesn't mean he's without the psychic powers, however.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fusion with the TV show Firefly/movie Serenity.

Julian Bashir found his nerves growing proportionately to the incoming mass of the planet Cardassia.  He wasn’t precisely _persona non grata_ on core worlds, but that was only because the Alliance’s special ops forces didn’t want their experiments to be widely known.  But there was something about Cardassia – no, something _on_ Cardassia that called to him, and he wasn’t sure if it was in a good way or a bad.  He shivered before boosting himself out of the cockpit and up into _Defiant’s_ ventilation system.

 

“Hey!” Nerys snapped, glaring up at him through the grating from where she stood beside the pilot’s station.  “Stop playing around in that!  We need it for the ship to keep functioning!”

 

“Not doing harm,” Julian promised.  “Safe like Heaven.  Careful, very careful of myself.”  But it was sweet of her to worry about him.

 

“Let him be, Nerys,” Bareil said before his wife could explode.  “Captain said to leave off since, like he said, he’s doing no harm.”  He kept his eyes on his piloting instruments, but called up to Julian, “As long as you’re crawling around up there, would you tell the others to get ready?”

 

Julian scampered off through the vents, pleased to be trusted with the task.  Since Miranda, the others had been – not kinder, for they had been kind before, in their own ways.  No, it was more that they trusted him now that they knew he’d managed to deactivate the kill switch that had been stuck in his head.  Not just for that, of course.  Even he knew he was closer to stable now that he had proof he wasn’t crazy, now that they’d all helped him reveal the truth of Miranda and the Reavers.  And their trust was…nice.

 

His first stop was Jadzia, of course. He dropped out of the ventilation shaft in front of the door to her shuttle, landing lightly on the balls of his feet.  The door was open, as it so often was when her shuttle was docked with the rest of the _Defiant._

 

“Julian!  Come in,” she said with a warm smile, beckoning him into her lushly-appointed space.  “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

 

“Can’t stay,” he said, “just bringing word.  Cardassia approaches.”

 

“Mm.”  A faint frown crossed her beautiful face before she shrugged, apparently unconcerned.  “As long as you’re passing word… Have you told Ben yet?”

 

“Not yet,” Julian said, shaking his head for emphasis.  “You first, Captain second.”

 

“I see.”  She sank gracefully back onto the divan, folded her hands in her lap demurely.  _To keep them occupied so she doesn’t start breaking things.  Why does the thought of Cardassia do this to her?_   He would know if he was able to control his psychic abilities, but the desired command tended to slip through his fingers.

 

“Please remind Ben that my shuttle will not be disembarking and that I will not be seeking any clients while we are here,” Jadzia ordered, and it was an order, no matter how politely phrased.

 

Julian offered her a courtly bow and then leapt upwards, hands grasped the edges of the ventilation shaft, and he boosted himself back up.  Time to go alert the captain – and the rest of the _Defiant’s_ crew, of course.  And then it would be time to go meet this crooked merchant and whatever illegal goods he wanted smuggled.

 

Although… _Maybe he’ll let me stay behind this time._   There was something on Cardassia… Julian shivered in the safety of the air vent.  _Albatrosses belong with the ship, not on land._


	6. Stargate Atlantis: Just a Botanist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keiko O'Brien isn't really sure what she's doing on the Atlantis Expedition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fusion with Stargate: Atlantis.
> 
> Sorry it's late.

Keiko carefully tucked away the flora samples from the latest world the exploration teams had traversed.  She didn’t think anything they had brought back would help with Julian’s proposed ‘wraith cure’, but she would still give him her findings and keep the raw material for him to look at on his own time.  Besides, the flora samples were still interesting to her personally.

 

Sometimes she wondered what she was still doing here.  Now that they’d been able to use the Stargate to reestablish contact with Earth, she could theoretically return.  She was a botanist, no ‘xeno’, and she had only been invited along on the Atlantis Expedition because they’d wanted Miles’s expertise.  She missed Earth so much but, more than that, she hated feeling like the odd one out.  Everyone else who had come along had an interest in other worlds, in the Stargates, in the technology or the culture or the science.

 

And she did enjoy her work.  Getting to study alien plants was wonderful in its own way, even if it wasn’t the work she’d thought she’d be doing.  But she wasn’t trained for it and she couldn’t help but feel inadequate sometimes.  Especially when compared to people like Jadzia, who had trained for this sort of opportunity, jumped to grasp it, and never seemed to be wrong-footed about it for long.

 

Whereas she… well, she didn’t think any of the flora samples from whatever world had any of the components Julian needed, but she couldn’t be sure one way or the other.  If they’d been on Earth, looking at Earth flora, she would have been able to call herself ninety-nine-point-nine percent certain.

 

Keiko looked around her lab and sighed, trying not to feel too despondent.  Maybe she should go to bed early.  Things might look better in the morning – provided she didn’t heave up her breakfast again.  Being pregnant was wonderful, but it sure came with some obnoxious side effects.


	7. Sens8: Dinner Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julian just wanted a nice, peaceful night after a long, hard week. Too bad it feels like everyone in his cluster is dropping in to chat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fusion with Sens8, a Netflix original show.
> 
> For those unfamiliar with Sens8, the premise is that certain people born at exactly the same instant share a psychic bond (that must be awakened at some point by another sensate from a different cluster), the group of people being called a cluster. Most clusters are formed of people who are very far apart geographically, at least at the moment of birth, leading to clusters with huge diversity.
> 
> Not much going on in this one. :/

Julian kept a minimum of four chess sets in every apartment he lived in.  All of them were constantly in use as his clustermates strolled in and out because all eight of them played chess, although some certainly took it far more seriously than others.  Worf, for instance.  But Worf took everything seriously.  Even three years after their cluster had activated, the humor inherent in most of the rest of them had yet to rub off on the too-serious Worf.

 

“You have not made your move yet?”

 

 _Think of the devil…_   “Sorry, Worf.  Been a bit busy at the hospital,” Julian apologized.  “I haven’t been able to advance any of the games, actually, not just yours.”

 

“Hmph.  Your dedication to your work is commendable.  I suppose I shall wait and allow you to come and tell me when you have taken your turn.”

 

“Thanks for understanding – and he’s gone.”  Julian sighed and shook his head.  As much as Visiting made keeping in contact with his cluster easier, it also allowed for more abrupt ‘hang ups’.

 

Julian shrugged off Worf’s visit and walked into the small kitchen.  He glanced out the window to check the weather – overcast with a side of rain, thank you London – before opening his fridge and staring at the contents.  _Nothing with a side of nothing._   He sighed.  Takeaway didn’t sound particularly appealing but neither did grocery shopping or starving.

 

“You need to take better care of yourself, Julian,” Jadzia scolded.

 

He jumped but managed not to shriek.  “Can’t you, I don’t know, make some kind of noise when you visit before you sneak up on me?” he demanded, closing the fridge door and turning to face her.

 

“That wouldn’t be as much fun,” Kasidy said, pulling out a chair to seat herself at his table.

 

Julian knew, of course, that neither woman was really ‘there’, but his mind still perceived Kasidy as using the chair just as it insisted to his eyes that both women were in his kitchen.  And he knew, from being on the other end of the experience, that Kasidy also perceived herself as sitting down at the table, even though she might well be standing back in her own home.  Visiting could be a disorienting experience, but Julian liked to think his cluster had it down after three years.

 

“Look, if you’re not going to offer anything productive, I need to go out and get groceries,” Julian said, more than a bit grumpy.

 

“At least it’s not take out,” Kasidy said.

 

“Oh, idea!” Jadzia exclaimed.  “Hang on a tic.”  She vanished, and Julian turned to Kasidy.

 

She shrugged back at him.  “Don’t look at me.  I don’t understand how Jadzia’s mind works any better than you do,” she said.

 

“That’s a lie, because you’re both women,” Julian protested.

 

Kasidy rolled her eyes.  “Really, Julian?  You _know_ that’s not how it works and I know that you know and so on and so forth.”

 

Julian grumbled a bit but muttered, “I know, I know,” loud enough for her to hear.  If he didn’t acknowledge it, she’d bother him until he did.  Normally he didn’t mind, but the way his week had been going…well, he freely admitted that his temper was a bit closer to the surface than normal.

 

“You see what I mean, Ben?”

 

Julian and Kasidy both turned to find Jadzia and Ben examining Julian’s empty fridge.  Ben shook his head and shut the door.  “Hold still,” he told Julian.

 

“What?  Why?  No!”

 

But it was too late – Ben had ‘stepped into’ Julian’s body.  “Let’s go buy you some groceries and then I’ll cook you some food,” Ben said, moving Julian towards the door.  “Don’t wait up, ladies,” he added over his shoulder.

 

“Have fun,” Jadzia giggled, wiggling her fingers at them.

 

Kasidy chuckled and shook her head.  “Don’t be too rough on him, Ben.”

 

_Why is this my life?_


	8. Teen Wolf: I'm the Alpha

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's not the pack she'd have chosen, but it's the pack she has, and Nerys isn't going to stand there and let them do stupid shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fusion with the TV show Teen Wolf.

“I told you not to go near that guy!” Nerys snarled, shoving Julian back a step.  He went willingly enough, bending to her Alpha status in that respect, but his eyes remained locked on hers challengingly.  “He’s a _hunter_ , you suicidal moron.”

 

“Just because his family is doesn’t mean _he_ is,” Julian protested.  “Besides, he’s my _friend._   Garak _has been_ my friend since before _your_ crazy aunt _bit me_!”

 

Teenagers.  She’d forgotten how melodramatic they could be.  Nerys growled but Bashir didn’t cringe back.  He stood his ground, face still creased into a grumpy scowl.  It wasn’t threatening in the least, but if she wasn’t, either, then there was a problem.  She was his alpha, after all, the pack leader.  And if Julian acted up, the others might, too.  Never mind that she’d bitten them while it had been Aunt Adami who’d bitten Julian.  He’d chosen to join _her_ pack, submit to her leadership, acknowledged her as his alpha.

 

So Nerys pushed him again, with more strength, shifting so that her eyes flared red and her claws and fangs sprouted long and cruel.  She shoved him until he fell to the ground, staring up at her, and then she leaned down, sticking her face in his, not giving him a chance to stand up.  “This isn’t a democracy, Julian, it’s a wolf pack and _I’m the alpha._ Your _alpha._   When I give you an order – not just that, but explain _why it’s a bad fucking idea_ – you’re expected to _listen and obey.  Do you understand?_ ”

 

Julian stared up at her in silence for a few more moments before he said, softly, “Garak isn’t Dukat.”

 

“You don’t know them,” Nerys snarled.  “You don’t know how they work.  They twist you around until you don’t know up from down and then they strike.  Don’t you dare bring that down on this pack!”  _Don’t you dare do a repeat of what I let happen._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not happy with this and I didn't know where/how to end it. Because neither of them was going to back down and neither of them is right just like neither of them is wrong... ugh.


	9. Dark Angel: Super Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julian's been looking for his 'siblings' for ten years. Ezri's been helping him for five months, but she thinks she's got a lead. Maybe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Crossover with the TV show Dark Angel.

Ezri looked up at the soft sound, turned, unsurprised to find Julian leaning against the doorway to her kitchen.  “Surprise?” he asked, eyebrows lifted, charming smile on his face.

 

“It’s not a surprise when I know you’re coming over,” Ezri said.  She turned back to the stove and pulled the pot of sauce off the burner, turning it off.  It was strange, she reflected, what had been restored after the EMP surge ten years ago and what had yet to come back.  _Yet to come back?  Do I still think, after all this time, that everything’s going to be restored one day?  That I’ll wake up to find that everything’s gone back to how I so distantly remember it being?_   That was a little too idealistic.

 

“Do you have news?” Julian asked, pulling her from her thoughts.

 

“Not exactly,” Ezri admitted.  “It’s nothing solid.  But there are rumors circulating about something happening in Seattle.  A ‘super girl’ supposedly helping out that cyber-hacker, Eyes Only.”

 

“A super girl,” Julian mused.  “One of my sisters?”

 

“Maybe,” Ezri stressed.  She poured the sauce over the bowl of noodles, mixed it up, and then carried the serving dish to the table, pleased to find Julian serving wine.  Wine he must have brought, since she didn’t keep any.  She took a moment, while his back was turned, to run her eyes over the barcode on the back of his neck.  The only obvious physical proof that he’d been created in a lab, designed from the genes out to be a tool of war.  “There’s no proof one way or another that this woman is a transgenic because no one’s giving out descriptions, least of all descriptions that include a barcode stamped on the back of her neck.”

 

“But you could get in contact with Eyes Only, through one of his brokers,” Julian suggested, with growing eagerness, “or I could!  And I could ask about transgenics – well, about the bar code at least –”

 

“And what will you do if he thinks you’re still with the Dominion?” Ezri interrupted, sitting down.  She reached out and served herself, never mind that Julian was her guest and hadn’t helped himself yet.  As she spooned spaghetti onto her plate, she continued inexorably, “Only, what, twelve of you escaped.  And that was ten years ago, just after the Pulse.  A lot can change in ten years, and maybe the Dominion might take advantage of that, try to find one or more of you by using those who didn’t get out.  There’s no way to prove to Eyes Only or this maybe-transgenic that you’re who you say you are.”

 

Julian sank into his chair, stared blankly down at his plate.  Silence for a few moments.  Ezri regretted puncturing his excitement, but someone needed to be reasonable about this.

 

Abruptly, Julian straightened.  “You’re wrong,” he said, full of confidence again.  “There is one surefire way to prove that I’m who I say I am.”  He tapped two of his fingers on the back of his neck, right over where Ezri knew the barcode was branded.  “I remember the serial numbers of everyone who escaped with me.  If she’s one of us, this girl in Seattle, she’ll remember, too.  There’s no way she won’t, because our memories are too good, and this was the only way we knew for sure we could find each other again someday.”

 

Ezri hesitated while Julian served himself, wondering if she should point out the potential flaw.  _If you don’t and something happens, you’ll blame yourself._   “What if this is something set up by the Dominion to try and recapture those who escaped?  What if they’re behind the rumors and they’re waiting in Seattle for all of you?”

 

Julian slowly set the pasta bowl back down and looked straight into her eyes.  “I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t go,” he said.  “No matter what happens.”

 

Ezri sighed and shook her head.  She’d expected an answer like that.  “All right.  I’ll ask my family to keep their feelers out, but… okay.  Let’s contact Eyes Only.”  _Please let this not be a trap._


	10. Leverage: The Team

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Former insurance investigator Ben Sisko just wants to drink himself to death after the death of his son and the dissolution of his marriage. Too bad life has other plans for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Crossover with Leverage.

“Mr. Sisko?”

 

Ben looked up at question, frowned at the older man coming his way.  Greying hair framed a long, almost aquiline face and cheekbones sharp enough to use as knives.  He turned away, back to his drink, uninterested in whatever this businessman wanted with him.

 

“I’ve read about you.  What you used to do, for Dominion Investigations.  How you saved them money, chasing thieves, finding stolen or missing artwork,” the man said, sitting down on the barstool next to Ben’s.  His voice grated on Ben’s eardrums, but the next words out of his mouth made it impossible to ignore him.  “And I know how they turned around and left you out to dry when your son needed money for that surgery –”

 

Ben slammed his drink down and turned to face the tall, slender man with murder in his eyes.  “Be. Careful.  You’ve almost reached the part of the conversation where I punch you over and over until you shut up or die, whichever comes first.”

 

The man blinked, offered a slick, oily smile.  “My sincere apologies, Mr. Sisko.  I prefaced with your history because I want you to understand why I’m here offering you a very particular job.”  He paused for a moment, as if for impact, but Ben just kept staring at him, silent, waiting.  “My name is Skrain Dukat, of Cardassia Airlines.  Our rivals, Qonos Aviation, stole the plans we’ve been developing for five years.  I’ve hired a group of thieves to retrieve them, but I don’t trust them.  Well, they’re thieves, so of course I don’t trust them.  But you.  You, Mr. Sisko, are an honest man.”

 

“So you want me riding herd on your gang of outlaws,” Ben drawled.  He picked his drink back up, took another mouthful, set the drink back down.  Let Dukat sweat a bit.  “You haven’t managed to convince me that Qonos stole your designs.”

 

“My chief engineer and all of his designs go missing and three days later, Qonos announces that they’re ready to unveil a brand new prototype of a plane that matches the specifications of _my_ project,” Dukat pointed out, reasonably, although there was more than a hint of anger under his tone.  Deservedly so, considering his stolen plans.  “I don’t believe in coincidence that so happily helps a rival.  Do you, Mr. Sisko?”

 

Ignoring the challenge, Ben pointed out, “There are other ways to deal with this than stealing the plans back.  If you get caught at it,” _if_ I _get caught at it for you_ , “there will be a lot of bad publicity on _you._ ”

 

“I have a shareholders’ meeting at the end of this month,” Dukat said.  “I was supposed to be presenting the new airplane there.  Five years, millions of dollars of R&D.  If I have nothing… And if I say it’s because Qonos stole my plans, what precisely do you think those investigators will believe?”

 

 _That you wasted it, exactly as I would in their place._   “Fair enough,” Ben allowed.  “Who are these people you hired for me to keep track of?”

 

Dukat opened up a file and pulled out several bios, complete with pictures.  “Julian Bashir, Nog, Elim Garak –”

 

“Garak.  You have _Garak_?” Ben clarified, voice going flat with his disbelief.  _All people I’ve chased at one point or another back when I was in the insurance investigation business.  Coincidence? Neither of us believe in that.  He must have thought I’d be comfortable with people whose M.O.’s I knew._

 

“Is that a problem?” Dukat asked, eyebrows rising.  “I was under the impression that he’s the best martial artist and weapons expert amongst retrieval specialists.”

 

“He is, but he’s also crazy on top of that,” Ben said.  _Not that Bashir is much better, and Nog has his own issues…_   “This is the team you want me in charge of.”  Not a question.

 

“Yes,” Dukat said.  He leaned in.  “You’re honest, Mr. Sisko.  I know you won’t try to rip me off.  And if any of them try, you’ll stop them.”

 

“These people don’t work with others,” Ben said.

 

“For three hundred thousand each they do,” Dukat countered.  “Double that for you.  And…” The hesitation was a cheap trick, but Ben found himself staring hard at Dukat, waiting for the bomb to drop.  “Qonos is insured by Dominion.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sir Not Appearing in This Short: Dax as Sophie Devereaux (your choice which Dax).
> 
> And that's all for this one. Part 4 of this series will be up in a week or two.


End file.
